Does high tidal volume generate ALI/ARDS in healthy lungs?

Abstract

In Intensive Care Medicine Gajic and coworkers [1] now report that use for the first 48 h after ICU admission of high tidal volumes (>700 ml) and high peak inspiratory pressures (>30 cmH2O) is associated with the development of the criteria for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in patients requiring mechanical ventilation for surgery, aspiration, sepsis, pneumonia and trauma but who did not have ARDS. Do these results support the concept that stretch due to mechanical ventilation may cause ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) in healthylung [2]?